Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. SUBSCRIBE Fake news is a human problem. And Silicon Valley is not good at solving human problems. With tech platforms built to supercharge the sharing of information, tech companies, journalists, and academics are scrambling for a solution to the spread of misinformation on the internet. A study published last week in the academic journal Science provided a stark reminder of the challenge posed by misinformation — and why modern technology is making it worse.…

United Nations officials have accused Facebook of spreading hate speech in Myanmar, where human rights experts are investigating a possible genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, told reporters on Monday that the social media giant has played a “determining role” in the troubled Southeast Asian nation, according to Reuters. “It has … substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public,” Darusman said. “Hate speech is certainly, of course, a…

Myanmar Red Cross members and a soldier seen near a damaged car after a bomb exploded near a bank in Lashion, Myanmar, in February. At least two people were killed and several wounded. Nay Myo/AFP/Getty Images Facebook played a role in spreading hate speech in Myanmar, according to UN human rights experts investigating a possible genocide there. Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said social media has played a “determining role” in the crisis, in which hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims have fled the country, according to…

Myanmar’s military is razing emptied Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state and building bases on the rubble, raising fears that evidence of atrocities may be destroyed, according to a new report by rights watchdog Amnesty International. Drawing on satellite image analysis and interviews with Rohingya eyewitnesses, Amnesty said that Rohingya mosques and homes have been bulldozed “at an alarming pace,” and new infrastructure, including roads, helipads, and military bases, are being build in their place. “What we are seeing in Rakhine state is a land grab by the military on…

The Guardian / Lagos, Nigeria THE US APPEARS TO BE DESCENDING INTO TRIBALISM “Tribalism stems from primordial, visceral and oftentimes fanatical sentiments and emotions…,” writes Irene Fowler. “Africa has all too often witnessed the end results of tribalism run amok which have manifested in institutionalized persecutory attacks, civil conflict and … barbarity…. The current morass afflicting the American political landscape is being increasingly characterized by the U.S. press and political analysts as ‘tribal.’ The irony is palpable as African nations seemed to have conquered the worst of the tribal demons…

“Save Ghouta however you can.” That desperate plea to the outside world comes from Alaa Abu Zeid, a young man trapped in the besieged suburb northeast of the Syrian capital with 400,000 fellow civilians, many sheltering in basements as their homes crumble above them Working for a charity handing out scarce food, and moving his family members from house to house to protect them from Syrian and Russian bombs, his vision is stark. “If the situation continues like this there will be new massacres, more children killed … and more…

The honorary titles once decorating Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi continue to be revoked amid the ongoing Rohingya crisis, with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum becoming the latest to withdraw an award from the erstwhile democracy icon. The museum announced Wednesday that is rescinding Suu Kyi’s Elie Wiesel Award, bestowed on her in 2012, due to her refusal to stop or condemn military violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority. “It is with great regret that we are now rescinding that award. We did not take this decision…

Refugees driven out of Myanmar by what the U.S. has called “ethnic cleansing” now face a new threat: the looming monsoon and cyclone season. Authorities have warned that more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled into neighboring Bangladesh are at risk of losing their makeshift homes to the deadly floods and landslides that accompany seasonal rains. Workers are scrambling to reinforce shelters and dig drainage systems before the bad weather is expected next month. “We’re doing what we can but we’re not sure it’s going to be enough.” “On the…

(DHAKA, Bangladesh) — Three peace prize laureates who met with Rohingya Muslims in sprawling refugee camps accused fellow Nobel recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s military of committing genocide in the deadly violence that forced hundreds of thousands to flee into Bangladesh. Suu Kyi does not oversee her country’s military or its security operations that set off the refugee exodus, but the laureates said as Myanmar’s leader, she cannot avoid responsibility. Tawakkol Karman of Yemen urged Suu Kyi to “wake up” or “face prosecution,” and Northern Ireland’s Mairead Maguire…

Despite the media attention on them, neither the Syrian civilians who have fled war in the Middle East nor the Rohingya Muslims who have fled repression in Myanmar are the world’s largest group of displaced people. That record goes to 4.1 million people dislodged in Congo. The little-noticed crisis in the heart of Africa has worsened over the past year to the point that the European Union and the United Nations announced this week that they are seeking to double foreign aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is…